Off the Wagon?

Well, not really, not like that. But I haven't posted in a long time, so I thought I should update my status. Since I last posted, I found out that I'm going to be a dad, and I taught two new classes, and I finished writing an article on something about pottery, and I was asked to review an article for a very interesting journal, and I bought a whole slew of books, and I got to see Paul Simon and La Bohème and the Nutcracker, and I got a new espresso machine, and I discovered Portuguese coffee in Bloomington, and I learned about how heat pumps work, and I did a lot of other things too. We had several really good friends come visit us over the past few months, and then some of them moved off to other parts of the country/world, but it was awesome to have them visit us here in the Middle, because it really is a very nice place to be. We're planning to have other people visit us in the near future, because until the new person comes along, we're going to have at least one fully extra room, and we can arrange things to work out even after he's here - he won't need his own room for a few months, anyway.

I haven't been keeping up with my old soccer regimen; the weather, my work schedule, and the people in charge of the field space around here have all conspired to keep me off the grass. Fortunately, I can still ride my bike as often as I want to, and whenever I'm on campus I get to climb 6 or 7 flights of stairs, to keep me at least a little bit fit. I do have a great view out my office window, I've posted a couple pictures on that "networking" site, but here's one such view:

Since I'm going to be a dad, I am now accepting mailed gifts - preferably things like Benfica jerseys and Portugal costumes. Well, Portugal did manage to qualify for the 2012 European Cup and Benfica managed to make it out of a really easy group in the Champions League, so that's the justification for those two selections.

Oh, you probably want to see the new espresso machine. My friend Alex gave me a Gaggia Espresso a few months back (quite a few months back, as it turns out!), and I have been happily trucking along with that for quite some time. But I recently developed an urge to go with a machine that has an all brass boiler system, and the Gaggia is only halfway there, so I had to explore my options. I happen to know a guy who knows everything there is to know about such things, so I contacted him and he told me a small portion of what he knows - enough for me to know that I should just take his advice and get a killer deal on the Rancilio Silvia.

So that's the new machine. Thanks to Mr. Les for making that dream possible. I'm currently seeking a new home for the Gaggia, so if you know anyone, tell them to email me. Works perfectly, I have even been keeping it set up, just in case I need to entertain a dozen people with espresso some afternoon (which seems highly unlikely). You can see that the Gaggia has some pretty unique styling, and I can assure you that it makes espresso as well as it looks like it should! I'll be sorry to see it go, but I'm not allowed to keep two machines, according to the contract that I signed way back when.

Ok, I have to go learn some more songs for a thing I'm doing in a few days. Should be a good time for everyone, but for now I have a lot of work to do. That guitar I bought a few months (years) back is still doing its job, I suppose I should upload pictures of one or the other of those sometime.

Finally, the foot is great, no issues, no problems, not even something I think about anymore! The screw they put in my foot so many months and years ago seems to be doing everything it is supposed to do, and in fact I haven't even noticed any issues with the weather changes over the past several months, unlike my knee, which sometimes is disappointed with these pressure fluctuations. Ok, that's really all I have to say about all of that. Happy Christmas, everybody! Or Happy New Year, or Happy Spring, since I probably won't blather on again until sometime in March!

Fall Backward?

Well, what I mean is that it's almost time for the clocks to change their time, and therefore the unofficial - but more convincing - fall of Fall is nearly upon us. I don't expect much qualitative change in either the weather or the moods around here, but there is this upcoming election business, and maybe after that we'll finally be able to get on with our lives and stop complaining about how things are or could be or were or should be. All that money wasted, to convince us that one essentially well-meaning politician is wholly good, while their opponent is wholly evil. I'm still not sold on any of that. But this isn't supposed to be about politics.

Somebody stole my lucky pen last week. So I was going to write sooner, but I couldn't, because of the pen thing. Also, check this out (see photo):

"But, Benficafiend," someone might exclaim, "didn't you buy a Taylor 110 off that guy on craigslist?" Indeed. "And doesn't the Taylor 110 come with those crappy Ping p.w. 1 chrome tuners (with the 1:14 gear ratio)?" It does. "So does this mean you bought a brand new, higher-end Taylor guitar off some chump on craigslist for far less than it's worth?" Nay. Methinks that one Taylor guitar is enough for our household. "So you've traded the 110 upwards for a superior model, with gold Ping/Grover p.w. 2 tuners (with the 1:18 gear ratio, and Taylor stamped on the back)?" Wrong again. Maybe stop asking questions now. It's really quite simple: while I was very happy with certain features of the Taylor 110 that we found on craigslist, e.g. the volume, action, and sound depth, certain other qualities left me a little unimpressed, namely the crappy stock tuners and the nasty plastic (tusq) saddle, with it's slightly-off-center intonation. So I have had to invest $40 in some upgrades, which involved replacing the plastic saddle with a bone one that I made and buying the gold tuners from a fellow Taylor-owner on craigslist. I would venture to guess that it's about the nicest Taylor 110 now in existence (because who else would be stupid enough to try to upgrade such a cheap guitar?!).

Meanwhile, the search for a worthy owner of the other guitar that I bought off craigslist continues, mostly because I'm just not really investing any time in trying to sell the poor thing. It's not a hated guitar, just not as nice as the rest of the flock, and, now that the Taylor is around, not a particularly welcome member of the club. So much for things having to do with guitars.

As may be expected, the vast majority of my time is still consumed with the editing and revising and rearranging of the dissertation, which I am happy to say has been building some steam over the past several weeks. Eventually, it will all be arranged into something that people can read all as a single object, but for now it's still chopped up into six different and only-slightly-related chapters. It's getting a little out of control, meaning too long and too involved, but I'm pretty sure it will eventually be as thoroughly ignored as it deserves. After I've cleared that final hurdle, I suppose I'll have a job all lined up somewhere, but I kind of have to do all the work to make that happen, so I've been sending out the occasional job application in my spare time. There are some pretty nice jobs out there, and I'm a fairly interesting candidate, so you might expect a benficafiend to pop up just about anywhere in North America over the January-to-March interviewing season. Or not. I suppose they could just as easily ignore me as give me a job. I'm not really worried about the job market, because in the worst-case scenario, I just find something else that I really enjoy doing, finish writing my second book, and pick my next job offer based on where it is and the quality of students the program attracts. Not a bad situation to be in, if it comes to that. But I'm sure my wife would much rather see me in a new job by August of 2011, so you can all hope and pray us in that direction.

Don't forget to sign the guest book, you know who you are! :)